Feature Chichester Observer, October 2019 by Emily Jessica Turner
An oral historian has republished her book about the history of making cloth out of nettles. Gillian Edom, who has lived in the Chichester and Bognor area for more than 20 years, has updated her From Sting to Spin: A History of Nettle Fibre, first published in 2010.
She said: “I started to research nettles many years ago after I got interested in spinning, herbs and plant uses. I came across a few interesting anecdotes about nettles and it was a slippery slope. After hunting around for more information I discovered it was really fragmented and made the rash decision of deciding to write a book about them. I ended up working for four years on an Mphil in nettle fibre extraction at De Montfort University in Leicester, but the impetus to finish the book was a Nettle Weekend that was being held at the Natural History Museum in London and they were keen for me to have the book ready to sell there. This was the first edition.”
Gillian published the second edition as a consequence of the Nettles for Textiles Facebook group being set up, following a new wave of interest in nettle fibre use.
She continued: “The most surprising thing about nettle fibre, apart from its soft, cotton-like texture, is how elusive its history is. Also it has been surprising how difficult it has been for people to find a method of extracting the fibre from the plant easily. The greatest success has not been by people doing it commercially, but by individuals trying it out for themselves.”
From Sting to Spin: A History of Nettle Fibre is available at gillianedomsbook.blogspot.com, or by contacting gillianedom@gmail.com
REVIEW May 5, 2019 by by Roy Vickery (excerpt)Gillian Edom, From Sting to Spin – A History of Nettle Fibre, 2nd ed. Bognor Regis: Urtica Books
Read the full review at Plant-Lore, collecting folklore and uses of plants
Reviews for the first edition (2010)
Reviewed by Fiona DixFrom Sting to Spin is full of quotes and snippets of fact, many tantalisingly inconclusive or now only partly understood. Gillian manages to weave this mass of detail into a very interesting story - of people's long struggle with a plant that has a precious treasure at its heart, difficult to extract, easy to overlook, but rewarding those who persevere with a fine and beautiful cloth.
I enjoyed reading this book very much and learned a lot too - not just about the fibre and the people who used it; many other interesting little nuggets are included along the way. For example, Victor Hugo's discourse on nettles, in Les Miserables, quoted in the book, provides a lesson not only in moral philosophy but in natural dyeing too.
Read the full review at textilearts.net
Amazon customer review, 1st edition
By Fiberflair, 11 September 2012This book is a good aggregate of historical information on the use of Nettle fiber as a textile source material. Much of the information available on the subject previous to this publication is anecdotal, second hand or persists in the form of folklore. The author has managed to sort the primary references from the rest and give a realistic picture of how extensively (or seldom) nettle fiber has been used in times past and suggest, from the truly scanty technical information, the most reliable method of processing the nettle straw. Item arrived quickly and in superb condition. As it is a one of a kind item I was nervous about ordering oversees. I needn't have and am entirely satisfied. on Amaon